" - " It would be wise for the people's magistrates to
keep constantly manufacturing large quantities of strong, sharp,
short-bladed, double-edged knives, so as to arm each citizen known as
a friend of his country. Now, the art of fighting with these terrible
weapons consists in this: Use the left arm as buckler, and cover it up
to the arm-pit with a sleeve quilted with some woollen stuff, filled
with rags and hair, and then rush on the enemy, the right hand
wielding the knife."[38] - Let us use these knives as soon as
possible, for "what means are now remaining for us to put an end to
the problems which overwhelm us? I repeat it, no other but executions
by the people."[39] - The Throne is at last down; but "be careful not
to give way to false pity! . . . . No quarter! I advise you to
decimate the anti-revolutionary members of the municipality, of the
justices of the peace, of the members of the departments and of the
National Assembly."[40] - At the outset, a few lives would have
sufficed: "five hundred heads ought to have fallen when the Bastille
was taken, and all would then have gone on well." But, through lack of
foresight and timidity, the evil was allowed to spread, and the more
it spread the larger the amputation should have been.
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